Summer fun at college, and no finals

For a little over a week this summer, much of the Endicott College campus in Beverly was taken over by 250 Lindy Hop enthusiasts, who used the student center, chapel, and auditorium to practice and perform the 1920s swing dance.

At about the same time, the Boston Chinese Evangelical Church was holding a retreat at Gordon College in Wenham. And Marian Court College in Swampscott had been transformed into Camp Seaview, where boys and girls ages 5 to 12 were doing arts and crafts, studying languages, and taking off for field trips.

Although the regular students left weeks ago, college campuses north of Boston are busy places this summer. Public and private institutions have thrown open their dorms, classrooms, theaters, and gymnasiums to a wide range of groups and activities.

``We have everything from corporate conferences to sports camps to weddings to workshops," said Carol Raiche, communications director for Endicott College. ``We always have something going on."

Years ago, most colleges were sleepy places in summer. The only people on campus were professors doing research, administrative staff, and a small number of graduate students and advanced undergraduates. By opening campuses to nonstudents, colleges find they can tap new sources of revenue, while lifting their profile and improving relations with the surrounding community.

The University of New Hampshire's Durham campus draws hundreds of youngsters every summer for sports, theater, and enrichment programs.

Youth programs also take over North Shore Community College in Lynn, where youngsters use the cafeteria for a talent show and take cooking classes in the staff lounge.

Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Hamilton hosts a series of summer programs, including a writers workshop and a youth leadership conference sponsored by the drug company Eli Lilly.

For most colleges, renting facilities to outside groups or running their own summer programs generates money from facilities that would otherwise be idle. Bringing in outsiders is also a marketing tool. Parents and children, sometimes arriving from far away, get a firsthand look at an institution they might not be aware of otherwise.

``There is a hope that some of these students might show up here or some other seminary someday," said David Horn, director of a Gordon-Conwell institute that runs summer programs, including one for high school students. Brian Wylie, director of Endicott College's sports and fitness center, said, ``With all of the camps and leagues here, we'll have people come in who say they didn't know Endicott College existed or that it's a co-ed institution with thriving academic and sports programs."

Also, opening colleges to local groups can make for friendlier town-gown relations. ``We consider ourselves a resource for the region," said Jim Glynn, assistant director of college relations for Salem State College. ``We like to make the facilities available when we can."

Recent improvements to college buildings and grounds have made campuses more attractive to outside groups. In the past decade, many colleges upgraded or expanded their dormitories, athletic facilities, and conference venues. Wylie said that summer sports programs at Endicott took off after the college opened a new athletic center in 1999. ``We just didn't have the space before," he said.

New soccer and softball fields with artificial turf were completed earlier this year at Salem State College. Youth soccer, field hockey, and softball camps now use the new fields.

At North Shore Community College in Lynn, youngsters attending summer camps retreat to the air-conditioned gym in really hot weather. "We're summerproof," said Paula Burke, the college's youth programming specialist. ``When it's hot, you don't have to keep the kids outside."

Because there are few regular students around at most colleges in the summer, the presence of outside visitors does not cause conflicts, according to college officials.

For the groups that descend on colleges each summer, campuses have a number of advantages. ``We love the way it creates community," said Tony Tye, taking a break after leading a strenuous Lindy Hop workshop at Endicott College. ``The people coming here live in the dorms. They eat in the cafeteria."

Tye, co-owner of Hop to the Beat Dance Studio in Hopkinton, has brought the Lindy Hoppers to Endicott three years in a row. ``The good thing is that it's a campus," Tye said. ``People can go outside and set up a volleyball net. Our dances can run until 2 or 3 in the morning. People can go back to the dorm and take a nap in the afternoon. It would be claustrophobic in a hotel."

One of the Lindy Hop attendees this summer was Maine resident Cynthia Finnemore Simonds, who graduated from Endicott in 1986, when it was a two-year, all-girls school. ``It's a wonderful experience being back," she said. ``Everyone is so welcoming. The facilities have improved 100 percent."

Robert Preer can be reached at preer@globe.com.